Former professional Boxer Frank Monkhouse delivers knock-out content for OLBG as our Boxing betting expert
What is the UFC?
When it comes to UFC and MMA, it does confuse some people as to if they are different things or one of the same.
The simple explanation is that MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is a sport, it falls along the same lines as boxing, football etc, it's a sport whilst the UFC is an organisation or promotion company, think of it as a league.
An example of that would be whilst MMA is the equivalent to football then the UFC is the equivalent to The FA or UEFA, another example is that MMA is the equivalent to basketball whilst the UFC is the equivalent to the NBA.
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The UFC is the largest MMA organisation, the first-ever event was staged in 1993, within the UFC there are a total of twelve weight divisions with eight men and four womens, and fighters adopt styles from a range of disciplines like boxing, kickboxing, judo, taekwondo and more which is why it adopted the Mixed Martial Arts naming.
When looking for UFC predictions, head over to our Best UFC Tipsters page, on here we only highlight tipsters who have shown a profit over the past year for their tips on UFC & Boxing which means you are getting the best of the best UFC Tipsters.
Upcoming UFC Events
Remember to head over to the UFC Betting Tips page close to these events to see which fighters the OLBG UFC expert tipsters are predicting to win the bouts, in addition to UFC you will also find boxing predictions on there too.
| Event | Date | Venue | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| UFC 309: Jones vs. Miocic | Nov 16, 2024 | Madison Square Garden | New York City |
| UFC Fight Night: Yan vs. Figueiredo | Nov 23, 2024 | Galaxy Arena | Macau |
| UFC 310 | Dec 7, 2024 | T-Mobile Arena | Las Vegas |
| UFC on ESPN: Machado Garry vs. Buckley | Dec 14, 2024 | Amalie Arena | Tampa |
| UFC Fight Night 249 | Jan 11, 2025 | UFC Apex | Las Vegas |
| UFC 311 | Jan 18, 2025 | Intuit Dome | Inglewood |
| UFC Fight Night 250 | Feb 1, 2025 | Kingdom Arena | Riyadh |
| UFC 312 | Feb 9, 2025 | Qudos Bank Arena | Sydney |
| UFC Fight Night 251 | Feb 15, 2025 | TBA | TBA |
| UFC Fight Night 252 | Feb 22, 2025 | TBA | TBA |
| UFC Fight Night 253 | Mar 1, 2025 | UFC Apex | Las Vegas |
UFC - The Biggest PPVs
Dana White is probably the one name which comes to mind with the UFC, he has been president since 2001 and has grown this into a multi-billion dollar company during his time at the helm and sent it worldwide with TV audiences from around the globe turning into each UFC event of which there has been over 500!
With the popularity came the $$$, the Khabib vs McGregor fight at UFC 229 in 2018 was the most sold event on PPV with 2.4m sales which well exceeded the previous record which was Diaz vs McGregor 2 at UFC 202 in 2016 which sold 1.6m PPV sales.
*Figures have been sourced from Tapology.
UFC - The Biggest Gates
In terms of the most considerable gates, the Alvarez vs McGregor fight which headlined at UFC 205 in 2016 holds the record with $17.7m receipts (20,427 attendance), it even beats the Khabib vs McGregor bout at UFC 229 in 2018 which brought in $17.2m (20,034 attendance).
When the UFC goes on the road that is when the attendances spiral out of control, especially in Australia, in 2015 UFC 193 was held at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne where a record-breaking 56,214 fans attended beating the 2011 record of 55,724 who participated at the Rogers Center in Toronto in 2011.
In 2019, the UFC returned to Australia again at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne for UFC 243 and the record was broken again with 57,127 fans turning out for the event!
If you are planning on having a bet on any of the upcoming UFC events then be sure to head over to our Best Online Bookmaker for UFC & MMA Betting guide so you know who to have that bet with!
UFC Men's Rankings & Champions
The Pound-for-Pound rankings are considered to be the best rankings, these are the best fighters in the world according to the rankings, you can find the full rankings for each of the men's divisions on the UFC Official site.
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Win Streak | Weight Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Islam Makhachev | 26–1 | 14 | Lightweight |
| 2 | Alex Pereira | 12–2 | 5 | Light heavyweight |
| 3 | Jon Jones | 27–1 (1 NC) | 5 | Heavyweight |
| 4 | Ilia Topuria | 16–0 | 16 | Featherweight |
| 5 | Belal Muhammad | 24–3 (1 NC) | 6 | Welterweight |
| 6 | Dricus du Plessis | 22–2 | 10 | Middleweight |
| 7 | Merab Dvalishvili | 18–4 | 11 | Bantamweight |
| 8 | Tom Aspinall | 15–3 | 3 | Heavyweight |
| 9 | Leon Edwards | 22–4 (1 NC) | 0 | Welterweight |
| 10 | Alexander Volkanovski | 26–4 | 0 | Featherweight |
| 11 | Alexandre Pantoja | 28–5 | 6 | Flyweight |
| 12 | Max Holloway | 26–8 | 0 | Lightweight & Featherweight |
| 13 | Sean O'Malley | 18–2 (1 NC) | 0 | Bantamweight |
| 14 | Sean Strickland | 29–6 | 1 | Middleweight |
| 15 | Israel Adesanya | 24–4 | 0 | Middleweight |
Here are the current champions for the men's divisions:
| Division | Champion |
|---|---|
| Pound-For-Pound | Islam Makhachev |
| Heavyweight | Jon Jones |
| Light Heavyweight | Alex Pereira |
| Middleweight | Dricus du Plessis |
| Welterweight | Belal Muhammad |
| Lightweight | Islam Makhachev |
| Featherweight | Ilia Topuria |
| Bantamweight | Merab Dvalishvili |
| Flyweight | Alexandre Pantoja |
UFC Women's Rankings & Champions
Again, like the men's, the women's side has pound-for-pound rankings, ranking all of the women fighters no matter their division, to see the ranking for each of the four women's individual divisions head over to the UFC site.
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Win Streak | Weight Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valentina Shevchenko | 24–4–1 | 1 | Flyweight |
| 2 | Zhang Weili | 25–3 | 4 | Strawweight |
| 3 | Alexa Grasso | 16–4–1 | 0 | Flyweight |
| 4 | Julianna Peña | 12–5 | 1 | Bantamweight |
| 5 | Manon Fiorot | 12–1 | 12 | Flyweight |
| 6 | Erin Blanchfield | 13–2 | 1 | Flyweight |
| 7 | Kayla Harrison | 18–1 | 3 | Bantamweight |
| 8 (T) | Raquel Pennington | 16–9 | 0 | Bantamweight |
| 8 (T) | Rose Namajunas | 13–7 | 0 | Flyweight |
| 10 | Tatiana Suarez | 10–0 | 10 | Strawweight |
| 11 | Yan Xiaonan | 17–4 (1 NC) | 0 | Strawweight |
| 12 | Virna Jandiroba | 21–3 | 4 | Strawweight |
| 13 | Jéssica Andrade | 26–13 | 0 | Flyweight & Strawweight |
| 14 | Natália Silva | 18–5–1 | 12 | Flyweight |
| 15 | Maycee Barber | 14–2 | 6 | Strawweight |
Here are the current women's champions for each division:
| Division | Champion |
|---|---|
| Pound-For-Pound | Valentina Shevchenko |
| Featherweight | Vacant |
| Bantamweight | Julianna Peña |
| Flyweight | Valentina Shevchenko |
| Strawweight | Zhang Weili |
Author Information
We are proud to have Frank Monkhouse on our expert teams at OLBG, maintaining our relationship since sponsoring him when he was fighting professionally, and now he delivers us top-notch boxing and fighting sport content for the OLBG pages.
Frank Monkhouse
Boxing Editor
Frank Monkhouse is a former professional boxer fighting at middleweight now turned sports betting writer supplying content from knockout-content for a range of outlets including Betfair, Coral, William Hill, World Sports Network and The Racing Post and proudly as the Boxing Betting Expert on OLBG.
👨🏫 Specialist Subjects🔬📚
It is no surprise to find Frankie is our Boxing expert, although he has a deep catalogue of work in regards to football previews as Rangers fan. Frankie has written preview for boxing events as well as working on some deep data driven boxing content for us too.
